Punishment by Ellen von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth is one of the most noted fashion photographers in the industry, pushing the limits of female sexuality.

The model turned photgrapher has now shot for all of the of top fashion publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, The Face, Arena, and i-D, and published dozens of books of personal work from exhibitions around the world.

Description

Punishment by Ellen von Unwerth

Ellen von Unwerth was born in 1954 in Frankfurt, Germany, and currently lives in Paris, Berlin and New York. Von Unwerth is now one of the most noted fashion photographers in the industry, pushing the limits of female sexuality.

Von Unwerth had a less than perfect childhood, at times being in foster care in Bavaria. Soon after Von Unwerth graduated high school, the circus caught her attention in Munich, and she was hired as an assistant, doing magic shows and stunts as well. Much of her photography to date contains notes and allusions to her circus days, featuring styles from interesting counterculture.

At the age of 20, a photographer approached Ellen on the street and asked her if she would ever consider modeling as a career. Soon thereafter, Von Unwerth moved to Paris to pursue this career, and proceeded to thrive, being shot by some of the best photographers of the time. Von Unwerth enjoyed her work as a model, but always felt the poses and creativity of the model was restrictive and unnatural, always being told to stand still.

Ten years after her debut in the fashion industry, Von Unwerth moved to the other side of the camera lens and began shooting. At the time, she was living with a photographer, who gave her invaluable photographic insight in order to get started. Just a few years after she became a photographer, a shoot she did of Claudia Schiffer for GUESS put her on the map, and by 1998, she was listed as one of the Most Important People in Photography by American Photo Magazine.

Von Unwerth discovered famous models like Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova, creating worlds of imagery with them that have already gone down in the history of contemporary photography and are now an integral part of our everyday aesthetics.

In addition to her career as fashion photographer, filmmaker and video director, her work has been collected in numerous books and two photo-novellas.Ellen von Unwerth has been published in all outstanding magazines and her photographs have been widely exhibited internationally including in Archaeology of Elegance (2012), Fashioning Fiction, exhibited at MoMA/Queens in 2004, and The Model as Muse, exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009), just to name a few.